Posts Tagged ‘Michelle Obama’

We live in a very special century made of an interconnected world: the world is melting and going faster.

From a transport point of view, this fast interconnection is bringing us to wear sneakers on a daily basis and to cover longer distances in cities turning increasingly larger.

Urban dress code and urban street food are just some of the concepts, that, always a little more, are being part of our urban lifestyles. Dressing is casual chic, or just casual, meals are made of bunch of different styles of fast foods, but the key words are always the same: fast, rapid, rush, no time, time consuming …

In fact people are adapting; but while adapting to this fast pace, the risk is to lose the basic learning and behavior, that can permit us to live well in this often hostile or at least health-unfriendly context.

People are adapting because of the lifestyle paradigm coming from a few economic giants, transforming the life of millions, are pushing us to embrace; we, the people, are just adapting, trying to find “street” and homemade solutions to live our lives in a better way with the little provided.

Useless to say that this is bringing also a massification into our customs and traditions, a massification of our habits and daily routines. Useless to say that for the majority with poor or little education, this is making things just bitter and harder.

But, in this process of grey massification we’d love to see an opportunity; the one of creating a quiet revolution, just adopting, healthier habits, healthier daily performances, to reach out our daily targets and goals, living a simpler life of which a #HealthyMobility is part of and consequently access the right energy to embrace this Challenge and a better way of living.

We should all try to seek positive possibilities while negative switches are taking place in the world. We need to adapt contrasting the changes: the more we do so, the more powerful and successful we will be. It is a matter of evolution: transformists win.

“It’s essential that we arm future generations with the life skills they urgently need in order to lead healthier, happier, more productive liv
es”. (Jamie Oliver)

This is an Era in which food is becoming central to the life of people!

So let’s try to see how ourselves, we can turn things in our favor and in favor of the people around us, teaching them, while the world seems becoming grayer, how to change and embrace colors and positive lifestyle habits starting from our daily routines!

But first, let’s talk about the empty energy that we are acquiring through processed food; the one you find in supermarkets.
Food in supermarkets is mostly processed: if you see how little space is devoted to fresh fruits and vegetables, instead on how much is taken by packed and canned items, you already can get an idea of what the food industry is willing us to consume.
Second problem, while you are in a supermarket: reading labels of those packed items: you will have the impression, almost all, to be suddenly victim of a blindness or poor eyesight.

No, is not the case: is just the industry that does not want you to read the labels: they do not want you to see that sugar lays hidden under different names (by the way, there are at least 61 different names for sugar listed on food labels. These include common names, such as sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup, as well as barley malt, dextrose, maltose and rice syrup, among others…) , or that Monosodium Glutammate, so dangerous for your brain, all the artificial colorants, preservatives, emulsifiers, and all gender of chemical products in your nice package you are about to buy, to bring a bit of chemistry in your already polluted organism. More than 3.000 chemicals are hidden in your canned, boxed, frozen concoctions.

Would you eat your favorite breakfast cereal if you knew that it contained Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT), a product also used in jet fuel and embalming fluid? Can you imagine grilling your low fat veggie burger if you found out that its main ingredient is Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)?

This seems a nightmare! I already breath badly in the morning when I wake up, because I smell immediately car pollution when I open the windows and then my cereals are full of nice oily products that are entering my mouth? But wasn’t somebody suggesting us, perhaps our parents? To open the windows and breathe the fresh air in the morning while preparing a nice glass of tepid water with lemon? Was that a dream or I remember the nice flavor of real homemade pancakes prepared with non-contaminated flour, not genetically modified, in my kitchen with my father? And this was not even so long ago…

How did we permit the industry to drive our lives at this point? And if we do not want to be driven, the only solution is the one of abandoning the cities? Do you find all of this normal? Should we start bulking the system upside down?

How could is this possible that they are able to cancel our memories of tradition and positive attitude, selling us poisons and we, accepting it?

So, you see, is a holistic vision of life that these decision-makers are trying to cut off from.

“Access to good, fresh, nutritious food is every child’s human right, but currently we’re failing our children. Millions of kids are eating too much of the wrong food, while millions more don’t get enough of the good stuff to let them grow and thrive. We need to unite as one strong, single voice to force governments and businesses to create a healthier, happier world for the future. We’re currently facing a global obesity epidemic, with 42 million children under the age of five either overweight or obese across the world. The bottom line is the next generation will live shorter lives than their parents if nothing is done to rectify these alarming stats.” (Jamie Oliver)

[…] provide you with detailed information about this amazing event. Our voice will be heard at the 4th Y4PT World Youth Meeting (Y4PT Dubai 2014) during the 2014 UITP MENA Transport Congress and Exhibition in Dubai and everywhere in the […]

Y4PT Foundation sincerely thanks the Roads and Transport Authority of the Emirate of Dubai (RTA Dubai) and Ferrovie Nord Milano (FNM) S.p.A. and all other donors after their generosity to sustain its activities for contributing to the advancement of humankind and environment towards sustainability.

Youth For Public Transport (Y4PT) - www.y4pt.org - is a Belgium-based international youth-led pro-sustainable-mobility non-profit non-governmental organization (iNGO) created by the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) - www.uitp.org - acting as its "Parent Organization" and sustained by the Roads and Transport Authority of the Emirate of Dubai (RTA Dubai) and Ferrovie Nord Milano (FNM) S.p.A. - www.fnmgroup.it - acting as its "Honorary Founding Members".

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